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Looking Back @ 2011!

I have been here 13 months and happy to say that 2011 was first year I set a budget and kept to it .If I can give a tip to new people starting out ,set a savings goal and send up automatic debit.You treat it like a bill that has to be paid ,that has helped me so much.I set very aggressive goals for myself and have found an extra $1100 a month just from changing a few things.

Good advice Marina. This was the first year we set up automatic withdrawals for savings. It's made a huge difference to our savings and financial future. 2011 was a good year for us. Paid off the mortgage, and starting some real savings. Looking forward to 2012

I've always done the same thing, and treated my savings like bills. The thing that I have done, is everytime I had an increase in salary, I would increase my automatic withdrawals by at least that percentage if not more. I also would increase my withdrawels when I maxed my CPP/EI contributions. Sometimes I reduce the amount back to normal come Jan, however, I found quite often I would just forget, and was still able to live on less.

Lol I will do the automatic withdrawals as soon as I reach my goal of full TFSA (20k at Dec 2012) and 10% of gross income from May 2008 (25k at Dec 2011, 33k at Dec 2012). That should happen by Dec 2013. Then I will just max my TFSA and increase to 20% of gross. Right now I save approx 30%-40% of my after tax income.

2011 was a good year for me, I finally paid off my student loan in late 2010 so in 2011 I was able to catch up on my TFSA and max it out. Already saved up 2012's contribution too. Looking back, I wish I had invested less in index funds and more in things that pay you to own them and as most think 2012 will be similar to 2011 I will put most of my money into income producing assets (reits, dividend stocks, etc).

With all the doom and gloom news I also found 2011 was a good year for me.

Moved into our new home in may and have been enjoying it. Ndespite that major expense I was able to catch up my entire RRSP backlog which I thought would take 4 more years! I also managed to top off my TFSA and my wife's. Now to pay off the mortgage ...

So 2012 goal is to keep the rrsp maxed which should be really easy, max out tfsa which I will do next week. And then pay down 20k on the mortgage while ensuring we have at least $40k in reserve cash.

Kcowan I made good money but spend it well too lol.My real goal for 2012 , to pay cash for a place in Florida from my 'hobby ' playing poker

Good for you. I am sure you will have the cash. The only thing I would question is the choice of Florida. Yuck. There are huge bugs because of the humidity. And empty beaches...

Why not buy a place in LV and let the ongoing funding happen?

BTW 2011 was a great year for us. Only 2 deaths, one a good friend and the other my formerly-estranged SIL (ward of the province). But investments exceeded to our plan.

And I was runner up in some contests:
#2 in the FWF Forecasting Contest amongst 12
#2 in the CMF Forecasting Contest amongst 24
#2 in the FWF Hedge Fund Contest amongst 9

I feel like always a bridesmaid. But then I got the marriage thing right the second time as well (so far - 16 years and counting).

In addition to spending all winter (some fall and spring) in PV, we spent a month exploring France this year. Even got my fluency back. Of course that has made me relearn the Spanish I have been studying!